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Tag Archives: Underwater

NCRR: What we do to prepare

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In March of 2019, our team Newton County Rescue and Recovery (NCRR) was called to Beaver Lake to assist the Benton and Washington County dive teams in searching for and recovering a couple of people that had drowned.   The water temperature was around 45 degrees for the dives we did. The visibility was less than perfect, we could actually see as far as the INSiDE of our dive masks.  Well, I am kidding but not by much, our visibility ran from none to about 3 ft at best.

Not the best conditions for diving. How do we prepare for that kind of diving you may ask. Continue reading→

Drift Diving Tips

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It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no, it’s a SCUBA diver riding the current. What? Think about it, in SCUBA classes you are told about being neutrally buoyant. So, you don’t weigh more or less than the water but basically the same. Think back to those open-water classes… neutrally buoyant divers only move just a couple of inches in the water with the inhale and exhale of a breath of air.

When you take your classes in the lake, you try to practice that neutral buoyancy. But in the lake, you have to keep kicking your fins to propel yourself through the water. It is different in the ocean though.

As most people know, the ocean has currents. Those currents are actually your friend when diving through the open waters of the ocean. You expend less energy propelling yourself through the waters. Instead, the fins help you navigate around walls or down behind the reef, etc. Basically, you kick less for those of you who haven’t had the opportunity to dive in ocean waters yet.

This gives you the feeling of flying. So, you might be Superman? Just a thought. Or a mermaid as a lot of people like to think! But there are some helpful tips to keep in mind. This could be considered an advanced diving practice, but keeping everything in mind, it’s a breeze. Or a current… You choose. Continue reading→

Sea Turtles

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Sea Turtles are a creature that we love to see while Scuba Diving.  They are large air-breathing reptiles that have been around more than 110 million years.  Sea turtles are one of the earth’s most ancient creatures.  Their shell is streamlined for swimming and unlike other turtles, they cannot retract their legs.

Seven species of sea turtles can be found:

Green Sea Turtle

Continue reading→

Diving After Bypass Surgery

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If you were at the April Extreme Dive Club Meeting, you’ll remember the comment where we asked Grady to write a blog post for this month. No, not the one he has written so far, but the one about diving after “bypass surgery.” This is what he wrote:

“Don’t take your wife to the doctor with you.”

Let me explain why I thought he should not be diving 2 months after bypass surgery. Continue reading→

But It’s Dark Out There…

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You’ve arrived at your tropical ocean destination and perhaps have even done a day or two of diving already and then somebody asks if you’d like to go on a night dive in the ocean.  Why would you want to go on a nighttime ocean dive?  It’s dark out there.

Ocean night dives are one of my favorite kind of dives to do.  The reef comes alive at night, literally, most of the hard corals that look like a rock during the day come alive with polyps and are actively feeding at night.  These pictures of corals at night with the fluorescent lighting show the polyps really well

Continue reading→

Lionfish in the Caribbean

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Are Lionfish a Problem in the Caribbean??

Lionfish are a venomous species of scorpionfish that are not native to the Caribbean.  They are a beautiful treasured fish in aquariums that through purposeful and accidental release have been released in the American Tropics, Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico. Lionfish are believed to have shown up in the ocean waters as early as the 1980s.

Lionfish are native to the warm tropical waters of the South Pacific and Indian Oceans, including the Red Sea. With the introduction of Lionfish to the tropics, Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico, these fish have been seen as far north as Massachuessettes. They are now as far out into the Atlantic as Bermuda.

Are they a problem?  Yes, these non-native fish have no known predators. They are out-breeding, out-competing, and out-living native fish stocks and other marine species.  Lionfish live over 15 years and are not picky eaters. Continue reading→

Why Do I Like Working With Students?

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Working with students has been a GREAT joy to me for several reasons.

The first brings me back to Mike. He was the first student I had responsibility for. We were on a live-aboard in the Bahamas. He had some reservations about the first dive in the ocean. When we got in the water, he was doing but he was breathing pretty fast. We had a short dive, but he saw many different fish and corals that he had questions about when we got back on board.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t sure about what he was seeing. We solved the problem on the second dive. We each took a slate with us. As he would point with questions, I filled out the slates with the answers to “what’s that?”

He was thrilled and so was I. We spent the whole week together and enjoyed each others company. He was so thrilled that next both of his daughters came in to sign up for classes. Continue reading→

Something I Thought I Would Never Do!

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circa 1990s sometime…

Many times people ask “how did you get started SCUBA diving?” Well, let me tell you, SCUBA Diving was not something I thought I would ever want to do.

How it started, Grady won classes at a charity auction so he and his brother took classes. They became Open Water SCUBA Divers. Several months later, Grady and I took a trip to Florida to Vortex Springs.

Somehow an instructor talked me into trying SCUBA. Well, guess what, I could do it and loved it. I then signed up for Open Water classes. That was 1990. Later that year we took a trip to the Bahamas. I remember putting my face in the water and saying “I can see the bottom.” I’m gone. I figured the bottom was a lot closer than it actually was. Grady said I was down around 80 feet or so before I realized the bottom wasn’t just 15-20 feet down. Continue reading→

SHARKS!!!!

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One of the most asked questions if wanting to learn to SCUBA Dive is “what about sharks”? What about them? Sharks are an awesome and wondrous sight to see.  There are over 440 known species of sharks. However, we only get to see a few of these while Scuba Diving.

Nurse Sharks

Nope, they don’t wear a nurse’s hat. But that could be fun to see. They are however known as the “couch potatoes of the sea.” They prefer to dwell near the ocean floor. A nurse shark is able to rest motionless while other sharks have to keep moving to survive. Continue reading→

Diving Every Month

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Dive Every Month

Diving every month…..why would anyone living in the Midwest dive every month? In the words of Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof, “I’ll tell you – I don’t know. But it’s a tradition…”

I was certified to dive in July 2003, then dove in Beaver Lake in August and Hawaii in September. Beaver Lake again the rest of the year. New Years Day 2004, again in Beaver. Then a trip to Cozumel and more Beaver Lake dives.

Next thing I know it is New Year’s Day 2005 and I have not gone a month without diving. Now I am thinking if I can make it to Memorial Day, then I will have dove every month (23) since getting certified, and warm weather dives are easy to do. 

Continue reading→